1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted type microwave oven, which is adapted to allow a sensor to be easily fitted to and detached from the microwave oven.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a microwave oven is a cooking appliance which is intended to cook food by intermolecular frictional heating of the foods, which is generated by repeatedly agitating water molecules of the food with high-frequency electromagnetic energy. Among such microwave ovens, a microwave oven, which is fixedly installed over a cooking device such as a gas oven range to also serve as a hood to exhaust contaminated air to an outside, is usually referred to as a wall-mounted type microwave oven.
A conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven is generally installed over a gas oven range in a kitchen, and performs an operation of exhausting, for example, exhaust gas and fumes generated from the gas oven range disposed therebelow, to an outside, as well as a cooking operation as in a usual microwave oven.
The wall-mounted type microwave oven includes a cooking chamber to cook food therein, and an electric component compartment to receive various electric components, which are isolated from each other. The wall-mounted type microwave oven is provided with a ventilation flow path to cool the electric component compartment and to ventilate the cooking chamber, and an exhaust flow path to exhaust to the outside the gas and the fumes generated from the gas oven range positioned below the microwave oven.
The wall-mounted type microwave oven is further provided with various kinds of sensors to sense temperature or humidity of air flowing in the ventilation and exhaust flow paths.
To fit a sensor to one of the ventilation and exhaust flow paths of the wall-mounted type microwave oven, a wall, defining the one flow path, is formed with a hole. A terminal unit to transmit electric power and control signals to the sensor is fitted therein, and the sensor is connected to the terminal unit. The sensor is coupled to the terminal unit and held thereto by a sensor holder, which surrounds the sensor at one end thereof and surrounds the terminal unit at another end thereof. Therefore, the sensor is fixedly installed in the one flow path of the microwave oven.
However, separating the sensor holder surrounding the sensor and the terminal unit and detaching the sensor from the terminal unit are troublesome operations because the performance thereof must occur in a confined space when the sensor is in need of replacement with a new one or to repair the sensor, thus, a working efficiency thereof is decreased.